The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for rotating an item and more particularly for rotating an item as it travels along a conveying path and positively controlling the item before and after it is rotated.
In the bag manufacturing field, an environment in which the present invention is particularly useful, a web of bag material is successively folded, glued or bonded and cut in multiple steps and in varying orders of those steps, in order to produce a series of individual finished bags from the continuous web. In the process of forming the bag, the web of material is conveyed along a longitudinal path during which time certain folding, gluing and cutting steps are performed and then, in some situations, the bag is then conveyed along a transverse path to perform additional folding, gluing and perhaps cutting steps, on an edge perpendicular to edges engaged or acted upon during the initial steps, particularly when forming a flat bottom bag or heat sealed bottom bag. This results in a manufacturing line having a 90.degree. bend therein to accommodate the change of direction of the bag material as it is being processed. Such a manufacturing line configuration results in an inefficient use of floor space within the manufacturing facility in order to accommodate the 90.degree. bend in the assembly line.
It would be advantageous if there were provided a means for rotating the severed bag material as it moves longitudinally along the line in order to allow edge finishing operations to occur on two adjacent edges that extend at 90.degree. to each other. It is also important to positively control the bag material as it travels along its path to ensure precise orientation of the material for the various operations.